Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...

headed households seem to be more concentrated in the lowest expenditure groups, perhaps
confirming the fact that they are poorer than their male counterparts.
About 44 percent of the household heads cannot read or write. Table 5.4 indicates that the
percentage of illiterate household heads is highest in the two poorest expenditure quintiles.
However, there seems to be little difference in the level of literacy between the three other
expenditure quintiles. As expected, in terms of educational attainment, farmers in the richest
expenditure quintile have the highest percentage of formal education. The farm-size break-down
of the educational variables shows similar trends. The regional breakdown suggests that farmers
in the North have a higher level of literacy and educational attainment than farmers in the South
or Centre (for example, 72 percent of household heads in the North are literate compared to about
55 percent in the other two regions). As expected, only 33 percent of the female heads are literate
compared to 69 percent of the male heads. Educational attainment is also heavily biased against
women as about half of the females that head their households have received no formal education
while only one-fifth of their male counterpart are in a similar position.
Most household heads consider farming as their main activity (93 percent); only about 4 percent
classify working in the service sector as their primary activity. A higher percentage of the nonpoor
households work in the service sector while a larger number of poorer households are
engaged in agriculture. Additionally, whereas 99 percent of female-headed households consider
farming as their main activity, 90 percent of male heads work primarily in agriculture. The most
important secondary activity for female heads of households is unpaid housework (65 percent
followed by food processing (22 percent). For males, the most important secondary activities are
service sector employment (15 percent), or employment in construction or manufacturing
(between 12 to 14 percent each).
Income sources
Aside from their own home production, farm households derive income from a variety of
sources. Table 5.5 shows the percent of households that receive income from each type of
activity as well as the contribution of each activity to the total revenue of the household. The
figures indicate that more than 60 percent of households receive some income from crop sales,
about 40 percent from non-farm self-employment and a little less than 40 percent from wages in
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